Donohue: CSEA Would Back A Challenger to Cuomo ‘If We Had To’

Fresh off last night’s victory of his rank-and-file’s approval of the contract deal he struck with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, CSEA President Danny Donohue made it clear that the union’s current detente with the governor isn’t necessarily a long-term thing.

CSEA and its fellow public sector heavyweight, NYSUT, declined to endorse Cuomo in 2010, (unlike PEF, which did back the governor, but later came to regret it).

Things haven’t improved much since the campaingn between Cuomo and the public sector unions, and, as Nick Reisman pointed out earlier, there’s still a lot of things the two might clash over between now and 2014.

I asked Donohue if he could see the union not merely taking a pass on Cuomo in 2014, but actively working against him. His response: “If we had to, I know we could.”

“The biggest problems that most labor groups have is they’re too tied to one party or the other,” continued Donohue, who recalled that his union once endorsed former GOP Gov. George Pataki.

“…We have a philosophy that if you stand with us, we’ll stand with you,” Donohue explained. “We’re hoping that in 2014, we can get a candidate that believes in the same principals that we do that we could work for and fight for.”

“Let me put it this way: This time out, Andrew Cuomo appeared to be running against public employees, and clearly we were not going to endorse the gentleman with the baseball bat from Buffalo.”

“By the same token, too, if the governor wants to work with us, we’ll be more than willing to stand with him. If he doesn’t, we’ll be more than willing to help find a replacement.”

This CapTon interview will air in full this evening at 8 p.m. and re-air at 11:30 p.m.